Assassin's Creed: Liberation
Small Package: In order to fit the game onto the Vita, they had to minimize its content. Imagine everything that was put into an Assassin's Creed game and cut out 50%. I guess that is alright since the game is offered with a $20 price tag. There aren't any horses, fast travel locations, or naval missions. You won't be playing a character around in modern times. In a turn of events, you are the person reliving the memories. You get to experience a brand new assassin, Aveline de Grandpré. There are still a wide-range of collectables (more details below) and 9 Sequences in 3 small locations to explore. A few new surprises exclusive to this title are also present.
The Black Sheep: I
find it interesting not many people review or even talk about this
game. I'm just now learning about its existence. The preset limitations
certainly hurts the game when comparing it to all the other ones in the
series. I spent a total of 10 hours on the game. Perhaps they didn't like the story of a black slave girl from New Orleans trying to "set people free" from the Spanish Inquisition
Invasion. Or maybe its the way they made it Templar-biased since it's a
product by Abstergo Industries. At least the game's 5 "Truth" videos of
CitizenE and 30 diary pages help fill in some of the details. There was a brief moment you connect with Connor from Assassin's Creed III
in New York (Sequence 8), but the linear path through the snow made the
whole thing felt meticulously forced in for fan service.
Disguises
Woman's Touch: The most interesting thing about this game has to be the way they added three separate disguises for your character. You can buy and enter various dressing rooms to change your appearance. Your abilities and how people treat you will depend on which one you choose. This in turn also changes your approach to the missions. Nearly every main mission will either forcibly change your appearance or ask for you to change to a certain "persona." Certain collectables can only be obtained in a particular disguise.
The Lady: This persona dresses you up in a high-class pompous outfit all ready for the ball. Your whip, weapons, and guns are all removed (other than the pocket gun). You cannot climb, spring, or jump. You can collect 10 precious stones from men hanging over balconies by finding a ladder or ramp. Your abilities are reduced to bribing guards or charming people to follow you around. Your notoriety is drastically reduced, but there are goons that will harass you from time-to-time. The only way to reduce your notoriety is by killing "witnesses". Instead of a poisonous blowpipe, you can eventually gain a parasol gun. The only drawback is it has to be reloaded after every use. At least its fun to take it out while walking out on the streets. The main advantage of this persona is dragging your target away from the crowd. Once you realize this, it can be a devastating tactic.
The Assassin: This
is your typical persona of the series. You can use every weapon and
tool. You can free-run and utilize every tactic. Guards will spot you
quicker than normal, even when trying to find a hiding spot. The only
way to reduce your notoriety is by bribing heralds corrupt magistrates.
The Slave: Unlike The Lady persona, this disguise only limits your overall finesse half-way. You don't get to use any swords, but you are able to use axes. Chain killing is still disabled, but you are able to utilize your whip. All guns except the pocket pistol are removed. Although you can still run and climb around, I feel like the animation is a hair slower than The Assassin persona. Notoriety can be lowered simply by removing wanted posters around town. You can't miss them since they show up on the mini-map and glow purple when using eagle vision. I didn't care for this persona at first until I discovered the magic box. All you have to do is grab a crate from anywhere and everyone will leave you alone. It is the perfect stealth tactic when trying to get inside a fortress.
Features
Canoes: Although you can't ride a horse, they did introduce a new way to travel. Borrowing the code of the gondolas from Assassin's Creed II, canoes are setup all throughout the Louisiana Bayou in San Danje and the docks of New Orleans. However, they don't really help you traverse the area too well. It probably would be faster to just hop across the tree tops. Although I never experienced it, I read a notification stating that the alligators will grab hold of you in deep water. That made me anxious enough to avoid swimming across the swamp.
Naval Trading: No crafting system here. Instead, they implemented a neat little game where you can use up to 8 ships to buy and sell supplies all across the region. Cities are gradually unlocked as you complete main missions. I found it rather interesting to watch your little boats sail on the dotted lines across the map. The UI makes it rather easy to see which cities are buying the stock loaded up on the boats and little anchors to locate your fleet. What I didn't like was how buying merchandise took you to a completely separate menu or how it doesn't explain what the various obstacles - hurricane, storms, pirates - do to your ships. I think there was this little footnote in the manual that talked about how weather can slow your ships down. This will be your primary way to gain money since Treasure Chests only have 500 - 3,000 and weapons can cost upward to 30,000 écu (or more if you are dumb enough to buy from a rival store). Don't feel like you have to run all the way back to the warehouse either. You can access the Naval Trading at any shop.
Chain Killing: Being all alone in the city without any assassin friends to pounce on your targets, the game provides a new tactic using the left bumper to chain kill. Your power meter will build-up and allow you to instantly kill up to 3 targets at once. Be aware that it does take into consideration whether you are actually close enough for a melee or range strike (if your gun is loaded) as you move from target-to-target. The screen will freeze in place to allow you ample time to pick your strikes.
Arsenal: Depending on your disguise, what main sequence mission you are on, and what weapons you have bought, there are plenty of gadgets you can use to incapacitate your target. Like Assassin's Creed III, your weapons consist of fists, hidden blade, swords, hatchets, pistols, poison darts, berserker darts, and smoke grenades. Your character can also obtain a whip that acts similar to the rope darts. It also allows you to swing across specifically-marked branches in the game. One big thing I noticed was that you have to press 'A' from the weapon wheel to actually equip your weapon and tools.
Experience
The Good: I felt like the game was professionally done. The dialogue can get pretty witty. I recall a nice burn in Sequence 7. I had no issues with the voice acting. Although the cities were much smaller than I anticipated, they were very well designed. I love the outfits. After seeing the terrible dyes in Assassin's Creed: Revelations, I was floored to see beautiful color schemes for each of the three personas (only costing 1000 a piece too). Collecting a small sum of items to unlock specific outfits wasn't too burdensome either. Some even provide some neat perks like no alligator attacks or a 50% discount on items. I also liked the fact that they included a white line to the target for all your ranged abilities. I also really enjoyed both sequences where you explored inside the ruins. The underwater sequences was a nice touch.
Neutral: Since the story nets a change in your interface, everything within the computer has also changed. Instead of the bright white shards in Assassin's Creed III, you are presented with a bunch of faint lens flares like a man walking down a dark street in New York without his glasses. They appear when interacting with objects, critical in health, loading an area, or accessing your menu. Sometimes I liked it; sometimes I didn't. I was surprised when the tutorial showed you of a way to disarm an opponent and equip their weapon at the same time, but I could never perform that little maneuver while playing. Same applied to using pressing the 'Y' button after a disarm. These abilities would have been fine additions to the game if I ever figured out how I did them in the first place. I would have complained about how rigid exploring the map was until I increased the look sensitivity up from 0. I wished the developers added some decorations or visual improvements in the warehouse overtime, but I rarely visited the place to have noticed. I wish people didn't just simply moan at you as if they suddenly joined the Chamberlain's Fan Club.
The Bad: There was just too much running around! Even with the smaller maps, I grew tired of not being able to fast travel between points. It also got ridiculously bad trying to find certain items. They only appear on the map when you are close and disappear when you leave. Making sure you are in the right persona is doubly bad. I also ran into this weird problem where unlocking a shop and then redoing a failed mission would undo my purchase. The database is severely lacking any sort of history factoids to all the locations. I hated all the invisible walls and buildings that didn't have a way to climb up. There was also this very nasty bug that caused people to fly sporadically in the air every time I shoved them to death. There was also this weird issue with outfits and equipment being modified without my permission.
The Remastered: There was no way of telling if there were any changes inside the "remastered" version of the game (other than the one time it splashes up in the title when loading the game). All the original problems you saw in Assassin's Creed III are present here, including the 'B' button that is always shown during cutscenes. But if you were wondering about some of the luke-warm graphic changes, here they are.
Review
Assassin's Creed: Liberation is specially designed to be half the game than its predecessors. Despite it being ported over to PC and remastered, you will still encounter problems that would infuriate what should have been a great game. The developers tried their hardest to pad out its 8 hour campaign with collectables and miscellaneous weaponry. Changing between three personas and chain killing are both welcome additions. The story might be somewhat lacking in the details, but the dialogue and graphics are very well done. Exploring the bayou, the City of New Orleans, and the Mayan temples are all a blast. Considering its limitations, the game is a fine addition to the series.
5-26-2020